A tech scout is the visit where the people who will light the room, record sound in it and run the day walk the location before the shoot. Our pre-production checklist says someone from the crew should have stood in the space. This post covers what to check there and what to send the crew afterwards.
Go at the hour you’ll shoot. At 7 p.m. an office is quiet and dark, and at 10 a.m. it has phones ringing and sun through the east windows.
Take the DP or gaffer and the sound recordist if the budget allows. If it doesn’t, the producer goes with a phone, a laser measure, an outlet tester and the list at the end of this post.
In short
- Scout at the hour you’ll shoot, with the DP or gaffer and the sound recordist if the budget allows.
- Do the power math per circuit, and abroad check the voltage outlet by outlet.
- Note which way each window faces, where the ceiling light switch is and who controls each noise.
- Walk the load-in route and leave with phone numbers for everyone who opens a door on the day.
- Send a one-page report the same day, with labeled photos, room tone and open questions with names and dates.
Power: outlets, circuits and voltage
Find the outlets near each set and ask which breaker feeds them. In offices a whole wall often sits on one circuit, sometimes shared with the coffee machine next door.
Photograph the breaker panel and its labels, and get the name of whoever can reset it at 8 a.m. Where no outlet reaches a set, note the cable run and any doorway it crosses.
Do the math per circuit, not per outlet. In the US a standard 15-amp circuit at 120 volts carries 1,800 watts on paper, and electricians keep a load that runs for hours to 80% of that, about 1,440 W.
LED panels draw little, but an old tungsten fresnel or the makeup artist’s hair dryer gets close on its own. Add up the wattage printed on each fixture and spread the lights across circuits.
Abroad, check the voltage outlet by outlet. In Brazil it changes from city to city (127 V in São Paulo, 220 V in Brasília) and sometimes inside one building. Camera chargers and most LED power supplies take both, and hair tools often don’t.
Light: windows, sun and the ceiling
Note which way every window faces, using the compass on your phone. In the northern hemisphere east windows get direct sun in the morning, west windows in the afternoon and south windows most of the day, while north windows give steady indirect light.
A sun path app such as Sun Surveyor or PhotoPills shows where the sun will be on the shoot date, block by block on your shooting schedule. Then check whether the blinds close all the way.
Look up at the ceiling lights and ask where the switch is. Many office buildings run them on motion sensors or a central system, so they come back on in the middle of a take, or go off when a still interview has run long enough.
Handling their color and flicker on the day is in our guide to filming a talking head at a client’s office.
Sound at the hour you’ll shoot
Stand where the subject will sit, stay quiet for a minute and listen for air conditioning, elevators, plumbing in the walls, traffic, printers in an open office and building work next door.
For each noise, find out who controls it. A wall unit has a remote.
Central air is run by the building, and whoever can switch it off for a morning has to be asked days ahead, if they’ll agree at all. If they won’t, look at another room. Ask about scheduled work and fire alarm tests too.
Clap once, loud, and listen to the tail. A long ring means hard walls, glass and a bare floor, so either you bring blankets to hang or you pick a room with carpet, curtains and furniture.
Record a minute of room tone with everyone still, and another with the air off if that’s possible, and send both to the sound recordist.
Space, access and building rules
Measure the room and the ceiling height, since stands and a boom need headroom. Check the depth behind the subject’s chair.
Then count heads, the client’s team around a monitor included, and ask for a second room for makeup, cases and the client. Find out who approves moving furniture.
Walk the load-in route from the street to the set as if you were carrying a case:
- Where does the van stop, and how low is the garage entrance?
- Is there a service elevator, how big is it inside and does it need booking?
- Where does the crew park, and who pays?
- When is load-in allowed, and does the building want a certificate of insurance?
- Does the security desk need everyone’s name in advance?
- Is any shot outside, where the city may require a permit?
Leave with phone numbers for whoever approved the shoot, whoever opens the door at 7 a.m., the security desk, building maintenance and the client’s contact for the day.
What to photograph, measure and record
These photos are for planning. Shoot wide from each camera position at lens height, then the reverse angle from the subject’s chair, with someone sitting in it for scale. Add:
- a panorama of each room so nobody misses the wall behind the camera
- every window with the time and direction in the caption
- the outlets and ceiling fixtures
- the load-in route up to the inside of the elevator with a tape measure in frame
Measure door widths, and drop a map pin on the entrance you’ll use, since the street address leads to the front door, not the loading dock.
The scout report and a checklist to copy
Send the report the same day, while you still know which photo is which. One page covers it:
- the entrance pin, access instructions and contacts
- what you found on power, light and sound
- the labeled photos and the room tone
- the open questions, each with a name and a date
“Facilities confirms the air is off from 9 to 12, by Thursday” is a question someone can close.
The crew gets all of it, and the client gets the parts they have to act on, like the names for security. The answers feed the call sheet. For a conference or a launch, the event video checklist covers what changes when the room fills up.
TECH SCOUT
Address + entrance pin
Contacts: approver, keys,
security, maintenance
POWER
[ ] Outlets near each set
[ ] Which share a breaker
[ ] Panel: where, who resets
[ ] Voltage, outlet by outlet
[ ] Cable runs, doorways
LIGHT
[ ] Window directions
[ ] Sun at shoot time
[ ] Blinds, blackout
[ ] Ceiling lights, sensors
SOUND
[ ] Air: who turns it off
[ ] Elevators, plumbing
[ ] Traffic, works nearby
[ ] Clap test for echo
[ ] Room tone, 1 min
SPACE
[ ] Room and ceiling height
[ ] Depth behind subject
[ ] Room for crew, monitor
[ ] Makeup and holding room
ACCESS
[ ] Load-in route, dock
[ ] Garage clearance, parking
[ ] Service elevator size
[ ] Load-in hours, insurance
[ ] Names for security
[ ] Permits outside
PHOTOS
[ ] Wide + reverse angle
[ ] Panorama per room
[ ] Windows, outlets, panel
[ ] Load-in path, elevator
How this works in RecReview
In RecReview, owners and admins keep a library of recording locations in the workspace settings, each with a name, a short name, an address and notes.
A production plan takes one or more of them in its header, and each location with an address gets a link that opens it in Google Maps. Typing a new name in the plan creates the location on the spot, and the address goes in later from the settings.
The location’s notes stay in the settings, and the plan’s share link shows only the location’s name or short name.
What the crew needs on the morning of the shoot, like “unload in the garage on level -1, service elevator booked until 8:00”, goes in the note on the Team Arrival block. Block notes appear on the shared plan, which opens without a login.
Scout photos and the room tone can go on the video’s task as attachments, one file at a time up to 50 MB: JPEG or PNG photos, PDFs, MP3 audio or a ZIP with everything.
For a bigger set, add a link to the shared folder instead. Clicking a video block in the plan opens its task, so the photos are one click away from the schedule.
